San Diego Symphony Masterworks Series

Violinist Viviane Hagner was 12 years old when she first performed the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, a year before she made a breakthrough appearance in a special, joint concert of the Berlin and Israel Philharmonic orchestras conducted by Zubin Mehta.

It is a piece that has not only withstood the test of time, but withstood the test of endless repetition, as it is arguably the most performed of any violin concerto (arguable only because the Beethoven and Tchaikovsky violin concertos are close runners-up).

“It’s been a big part of my musical life for a very long time,” said the highly regarded German violinist on the phone from New York, where she was performing. “But still to this day, even though it’s one of the most popular and often performed concertos in my repertoire, I still cherish it so much. I cannot think of a season where I haven’t performed it.”

Hagner — who performs it this weekend in the San Diego Symphony Masterworks concerts at Copley Symphony Hall conducted by music director Jahja Ling — offered some insight on the work’s appeal to her.

• Composed by Mendelssohn essentially in collaboration with violinist Ferdinand David, who premiered it in 1845, the work is unusually idiomatic to the violin.

“I think it’s the most perfect concerto, if you can say that,” Hagner said. “It has everything. It brings out the lyrical aspects of the violin, and the melodies are beautiful. Also, it has a virtuoso aspect. And it has a light character, which is typical of Mendelssohn. I never get tired of playing it.”

• The work’s more transparent textures (especially when compared with other 19th-century composers such as Brahms or Schumann) allow the soloist to assume a role that Hagner finds especially agreeable. It is not a drama so much as it is a dialogue.

“It’s a piece that contains interesting aspects in all parts of the orchestra,” she said. “I listen to what’s going on and they react to what I do and I react to what they do. That’s what makes it for me really enjoyable to perform a concerto. I’m not just playing my solo line from the beginning to the end. I want it to work almost like a chamber music piece.”

• The work’s lyrical nature also speaks to Hagner’s musical aspirations, which started at age 3 on the piano before she started playing violin at age 4.

“Even though I enjoyed playing the piano, I felt more drawn to the violin,” she said. “I just felt like I could somehow make the sound more my own and also express myself more clearly and more easily on the violin than the piano. It’s also close to the human voice. … Ultimately, the human voice is what touches (us) most immediately. That’s what I’m trying to achieve.”

Mendelssohn’s violin concerto, his last large orchestral work, took Mendelssohn six years to complete. Even after submitting a final score in 1844, he kept polishing the work and making changes up until the premiere in Leipeiz in 1845.